Fresh Traffichttp://freshtraffic.ca
SEO Services & Digital Marketing FirmFri, 13 Feb 2015 21:40:04 +0000en-UShourly1Vanity Right or Wrong Advertisinghttp://freshtraffic.ca/advertising/vanity-right-or-wrong-advertising/
http://freshtraffic.ca/advertising/vanity-right-or-wrong-advertising/#commentsFri, 13 Feb 2015 19:27:19 +0000http://freshtraffic.ca/?p=2467 So I was asked today my thoughts about how a lot of beauty products are sold online or by direct independent consultants, I have to be very careful here as I know quite a few people in this industry. Firstly,...

So I was asked today my thoughts about how a lot of beauty products are sold online or by direct independent consultants, I have to be very careful here as I know quite a few people in this industry.

Firstly, I am not a lover of direct or MLM sales or marketing techniques, it makes people sometimes not walk a straight line, the old saying desperate people do desperate things comes to mind especially if sales are not what they expected, just my own feelings on this matter and too many mouths to feed within the chain so what is the product really worth?

If you look at the picture enclosed you may see some brands you’ve heard about, Wen Shampoo by some top hairdresser, Cindy Crawford wonder aging serums and Proactiv the all singing all dancing Acne treatment from Roden + Fields Doctors, but in fact they are all trademarks own by marketing companies, not really what they portray, is that right or wrong?

If you look further into some of these companies all the board of directors, CEO’s and the people running these are all from marketing backgrounds and have not one bit of experience about beauty or the products they sell, it’s all about creating a great story and playing on people’s vanity to sell a product, again is this right or wrong or just good advertising?

At the end of the day I think it’s all about money, they don’t care who buys it as long as someone does to feed the chain, I’m not saying some of these might not be good products, but direct marketers are more concerned about dollars, recruiting people for the chain and so on to keep the pyramid base firm and the top from crumbling and most walk a wiggly line to do it.

These are the thoughts of the writer and not necessarily the company’s.

]]>http://freshtraffic.ca/advertising/vanity-right-or-wrong-advertising/feed/010 Social Media Marketing Mistakes Businesses Must Try Avoidhttp://freshtraffic.ca/social-media/10-social-media-marketing-mistakes-businesses-must-try-avoid/
http://freshtraffic.ca/social-media/10-social-media-marketing-mistakes-businesses-must-try-avoid/#commentsMon, 09 Feb 2015 23:16:49 +0000http://freshtraffic.ca/?p=2463Social media is an integral component of any successful digital marketing strategy. With 74 percent of adults using social networking sites, the opportunity to increase your site’s online exposure to new customers cannot be ignored. While the ROI of social...

Social media is an integral component of any successful digital marketing strategy. With 74 percent of adults using social networking sites, the opportunity to increase your site’s online exposure to new customers cannot be ignored.

While the ROI of social media marketing remains hotly debated, there is no doubt that it can be a great tool for optimizing your web presence—or total nightmare experience depending on the execution of your strategy. Here is a list of social media marketing mistakes to avoid, and ways to ensure your campaign’s success.

Paying for fans and followers.

Having thousands of fans, followers, and likes leverages the power of validation and social proof, especially since visitors tend to take positive action when they see others have already shared the page.

However, social media sites have algorithms that track and analyze user engagement and interaction, including the number of people interested in an account’s updates as a percentage of total followers. When businesses have low engagement rates, platforms limit the reach of certain accounts because the numbers indicate low relevance and interest among followers. Therefore, fake followers only serve to hurt brands in the long run.

Creating a system or set of policies for updates, such as the types of posts allowed and how employees should respond to feedback, criticism, or suggestions.

Identifying the appropriate corporate persona and tone via social media.

Using too many social networks.

Research shows that marketers generally focus on three social networks: LinkedIn (91 percent), Twitter (85 percent), and Facebook (81 percent). However, the three social networks you should focus on depend on your niche or industry.

Recent research shows that the largest social platforms of 2014 were:

Facebook, 1.28 billion active users

Google Plus, 540 million active users

Twitter, 255 million active users

Instagram, 200 million active users

LinkedIn, 187 million active users

Pinterest, 40 million active users

If your primary demographic is women and your site relies heavily on images and graphics, you should allocate resources to Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. If you offer professional advice, services or products, LinkedIn and Twitter will yield the best results. The networks you dedicate time to should yield the highest ROI for your niche and target demographic; otherwise, your time, money, and resources would be better spent elsewhere.

Failing to use (or optimize) hashtags.

Harness the power of hashtags by creating your own. If your own hashtag gets picked up, then you’ll have a viral thing going. It is critical that you create a hashtag that has a specific message, one that’s interesting, engaging, and free of ambiguity.

Examples: #TweetFromTheSeat by Charmin (the toilet paper company) and #SFBatKid (remember Miles, the 5-year-old kid who had cancer and wanted to become a superhero for a day? He even caught the attention of President Obama!).

Brands should also be using trending hashtags. This can help spike your reach and inject your brand into trending conversations. So, how do you find trending hashtags that you can use effectively?

Use tools such as Hastagify.me to identify hashtags that are related to your business.

Then use RiteTag.com to tell you when a hashtag is overused, and that you should choose another hashtag to piggyback off of. This way, your content won’t get lost in the sea of tweets and posts.

Isolating social media marketing from other activities.

The focus on social media marketing is so high that some marketers forget the other assets of the business. In order for social media marketing to reach its full potential, it has to be tied in with a business’s website, blog, product pages, and other digital platforms—the essence of the web presence optimization (WPO) framework.

Setting up and growing a business blog is critical to your brand’s long-term success. After all, followers don’t want to click-through to product pages from Twitter, but are more than willing to check out interesting news, tips, advice, or guides.

For instance, if you manage a skincare product company, linking to a page selling acne medicine won’t get you many visits. On the other hand, blog posts titled “Top Skin Care Experts Reveal Secrets” or “How To Feel Confident In Your Own Skin” will get tons of engagement. The added benefit is that consumers will also develop positive associations with your brand.

Overselling.

One of the biggest mistakes marketers often make is pushing their brand too hard. Don’t be overly promotional and forget to share some value-added content. This means brands shouldn’t only broadcast their own posts, products, and company-specific information. Showing the consumer you care about their well-being, regardless of whether they buy your product, is critical to developing a loyal fan base.

Not using visuals to drive engagement.

The power of visual content cannot be overstated. For example, on Twitter:

Photos average 35 percent more Retweets

Videos earn 28 percent more

Famous quotes get 19 percent more

Tweets with numbers achieve 17 percent more

Hashtags receive 16 percent more

With a high volume strategy, the boost you can achieve with a visual aid is too good to past up.

Including the full URL in the description.

When you paste a link in the status field, Facebook generates a clickable image/excerpt. The link you’ve pasted is thus redundant, should be removed and a catchy description should be incorporated. The bare link should never take the place of your description.

An expansion of this concept can be applied to Twitter—don’t use long, full URLs in your Tweets. Marketers should leverage URL shorteners (including Twitter’s own) to leave space for other users to respond or share. Also, URL shorteners such as Bit.ly or Google can help you track the number of click-backs.

Sharing too much at once and overwhelming your followers’ feeds/streams.

Sharing posts one after another within a few minutes time is a good way to get people to unfollow you or overlook all your posts. Businesses should use scheduling tools such as Buffer and Hootsuite to space out tweets and posts for optimal sharing times. For Facebook, marketers can visit “Insights” then “Posts” to see what times most fans are online.

On the other end of the spectrum, sharing infrequently or irregularly will make your followers forget you. Create a regular posting schedule so your readers know when to expect new content from you.

Ignoring comments/tweets.

Whoever is responsible for your social media marketing strategy and message should be responsive to customers by replying to comments on Facebook, tweeting to customers on Twitter, thanking followers for Retweets, and proactively engaging with others, including influencers.

Similarly, brands must deal with negative messages as quickly as possible. If you ignore this aspect of your marketing efforts, you’re bound to lose credibility and followers. Sometimes turning a negative experience into a positive one by rectifying issues can earn a company life-long customers.

Not measuring results.

To optimize results, businesses need to analyze their social media marketing efforts. Is your reach growing? Are you engaging more followers month after month, or are your engagement stats decreasing? Is your social message consistent with your mission statement and branding? If possible, can you calculate an ROI? What metrics are important to you?

Whether you’re getting positive or negative results, analyzing and understanding your performance is crucial to a successful marketing campaign. But remember, it’s not just about getting more followers, comments, likes, etc. You can be growing your account every month, but if your effort isn’t translating into sales revenue, lead generation, growing your email subscriber list or whatever your goal is, you are wasting your time.

Search engines are increasingly filling a key role in meeting consumer information needs. According to a November 2014 study by Eldman.com, search engines have surpassed the traditional media (TV, Newspapers, etc) as the most trusted source worldwide by consumers with 64% of Internet users trusting search engines the most for gathering information. In addition, nearly half of the study said that they trust social media for news and information – a gain from 45% the previous year.

]]>http://freshtraffic.ca/internet-marketing/consumers-trust-search-engines/feed/0SEO is much easier than you thinkhttp://freshtraffic.ca/uncategorized/seo-much-easier-think/
http://freshtraffic.ca/uncategorized/seo-much-easier-think/#commentsFri, 30 Jan 2015 02:35:39 +0000http://freshtraffic.ca/?p=2450Search engine optimization (SEO) has gone through a series of evolutions over the years. Older tactics, which focused on keyword-based optimization and black-hat practices, have become obsolete, and modern strategies, which focus on user experience, have come to replace them....

Search engine optimization (SEO) has gone through a series of evolutions over the years. Older tactics, which focused on keyword-based optimization and black-hat practices, have become obsolete, and modern strategies, which focus on user experience, have come to replace them. Throughout its history, SEO has been a cost-efficient and incredibly valuable strategy for business owners of all industries.

But despite the strategy’s simplified development, many business owners are still too intimidated by the perceived difficulty of SEO to follow through with it. SEO is a time-intensive strategy, and it does demand significant attention, but it has reached a point where it’s no longer difficult. With the right mentality and a sound commitment, any business owner can start building an SEO campaign – and reaping the many benefits.

This was a story in the Globe & Mail this week, simplified SEO, so good luck with this people

]]>http://freshtraffic.ca/uncategorized/seo-much-easier-think/feed/0Microsoft may have found the perfect way to cap Google at the kneeshttp://freshtraffic.ca/google/microsoft-may-found-perfect-way-cap-google-knees/
http://freshtraffic.ca/google/microsoft-may-found-perfect-way-cap-google-knees/#commentsFri, 30 Jan 2015 02:25:31 +0000http://freshtraffic.ca/?p=2447Google’s Android platform has basically become to smartphones what Windows has long been for desktop computers and laptops — that is, it’s the dominant player in terms of raw market share. Microsoft is obviously not happy that it missed the...

Google’s Android platform has basically become to smartphones what Windows has long been for desktop computers and laptops — that is, it’s the dominant player in terms of raw market share. Microsoft is obviously not happy that it missed the boat on the smartphone revolution but it may have come up with an ingenious way to undermine Google’s control over Android.

]]>http://freshtraffic.ca/google/microsoft-may-found-perfect-way-cap-google-knees/feed/013 SEO Tipshttp://freshtraffic.ca/internet-marketing/13seo-tips/
http://freshtraffic.ca/internet-marketing/13seo-tips/#commentsWed, 21 Jan 2015 05:10:45 +0000http://freshtraffic.ca/?p=2441Confusing PPC (Pay Per Click) with SEO Google have made the ‘ad’ sign less prominent these days so it’s easy for users to think that the PPC ad that they are clicking on is the first organic search result that...

Google have made the ‘ad’ sign less prominent these days so it’s easy for users to think that the PPC ad that they are clicking on is the first organic search result that comes up. It is therefore recommended that a brand bids on their brand term in order to avoid competitors leveraging the user’s wrong assumption.

In the event that both you and your competitor bids on your brand term, your ad will more likely get displayed over theirs as you have more relevancy.

Expecting SEO results to take immediate effect for new sites

When launching a brand new website, it is quite a common misconception that one’s SEO efforts will take effect immediately. However, a site’s history is also taken into account, for which the new site will have none.

Therefore, you should engage in some PPC activity to bolster the visibility of your new website for the first few months until your SEO activity start to show results. You can monitor the status of your SEO activities with tools like SEO PowerSuite’s Domain Analysis.

Falling for cheap SEO services who use black hat techniques

Cheap and quick SEO solutions are almost always the ones who engage in black hat techniques. These are aggressive SEO tactics which usually doesn’t obey search engines guidelines.

Popular methods are keyword stuffing (where a certain keyword is nonsensically repeated in the content as many times as possible), using hidden text (hiding all the keywords that you stuffed so that it is not seen by the human eye e.g. making it the same color as the background) and link buying (buying links as opposed to engaging in legit link building activities).

Before engaging an SEO service or agency, be aware of the strategies and technique that they advise. If it seems too quick and easy, it may very well be fake.

Considering SEO at the end of a new website build

SEO should be a key consideration to any new website project. Gone are the days where SEO is just all about link building and having proper keywords in your content. Consider having keywords in your page URLs, display an HTML and XML sitemap and implement basic HTML tags like the title tags, meta description tags and header tags.

Make sure that at least a basic SEO checklist is considered and budgeted for in your website build.

Not budgeting for SEO activity

Engaging in SEO is free in practice as there is no media spend involved and showing up on search engine results is complimentary. However, there is a fair bit of effort involved in making sure that your site is engaging in as many SEO strategies for it to rank highly on the search results page.

You might want to set aside budget for an SEO tool, consultancy or agency to help you achieve a higher ranking over time. If you need to justify your SEO spending, you can utilize SEO Powersuite’s Rank Tracker tool to compare present rankings with any date in the past, e.g. when you started a new campaign, made important innovations or changed the strategy.

Quick and cheap SEO services that offer black hat solutions may be easy for a short term project, but will cost you in the long run.

Skipping the keyword brainstorming phase

When buried in a project, it is often all too easy to focus on getting the content out and subsequently adding in keywords haphazardly the minute before publishing. The problem with this is that some traffic-generating keywords might be forgotten in the rush of getting content out the door.

Keyword brainstorming should therefore be given adequate time, and there various keyword generation tools that will help speed up the process. Again, Rank Tracker is a good tool that connects to your Google Analytics account, which can help to collate a decent set of keywords that are already bring traffic to your site and relevant to your pages’ content.

Forgetting to address duplicate content on the site

Many brands don’t realize that their site might contain duplicate content. Examples may include the ‘About Us’ section if you have regional versions of your site, using printer-friendly versions of a URL and utilizing various URL parameters.

Options for addressing this is to use the rel=canonical tag for pages that are essentially the same. An example of this is the Professional Investors section versus the Individual Investors section on the Investec Asset Management website.

There are a lot of overlapping content on both sites, but a redirect is not possible because Individual Investors may not access some parts of the Professional Investor site due to compliance requirements.

If you have regional sites, you would also need to use the href lang tag (rel=”alternate” hreflang=”x”) to show that you have content targeted towards variants of a single language. This is useful if you have two regional sites in English, one targeting the UK and the other targeting the US.

Incorporating too many PDFs on your site and forgetting to optimize them

If given the choice, always choose to display an HTML page rather than a PDF as there are more optimizable elements in an HTML page. People are also more likely to share an HTML page rather than a PDF.

However, if you do need to display PDFs on your site, make sure to use plain text as opposed to words in the form of images. Set your title in the document properties, use an SEO friendly URL (with ‘-’s separating each word) and make the file size as small as possible for optimal download speed and usability.

Excessive use of Flash content

Search engines find it more difficult to read any content that is not in HTML format. If you use Flash content, it will be harder to rank in the search engine results page.

Always make sure that content you want to rank has an equivalent HTML format. You may also want to replace Flash functionality on your site using HTML5 techniques.

Ignoring social elements

Social elements are factors that can increase your ranking, so make sure that you have a social presence, share your articles through your social channels and gain references from social accounts that have good reputations.

Having thin content

In 2011, Google rolled out an update called ‘Panda’ which downgraded ‘thin’ or ‘shallow’ content, so make sure content on your site is well written and user-friendly. If your site is image heavy, make sure you apply descriptive alt tags.

Not using proper redirects

A redirect is the process of forwarding one URL to a different URL. Some use cases of redirects include moving from an old site to a new site or redirecting from example.com to www.example.com so that users may easily find your website.

A 301 redirect is the proper way to do this as it indicates to both browsers and search engine bots that the page has moved permanently, and carry any link weighting from the original page to the new URL.

Focusing on the detail instead of the bigger picture

SEO is a combination of several factors and no single factor can guarantee an increase or decrease in search ranking. Therefore, it is always best to implement the basics of SEO first and try to get your site optimized as a whole, rather than focusing on ultra specific details such as trying to assess how much more weight an H1 header tag has versus an H2 tag.

Always try to implement best practice SEO when possible and don’t lose the bigger picture when getting into the detail.

By correcting these avoidable mistakes, you can better optimize your brand’s SEO strategy to ensure you are seen and heard.

]]>http://freshtraffic.ca/internet-marketing/13seo-tips/feed/0Why The Best SEO Firms Don’t Offer Guaranteeshttp://freshtraffic.ca/uncategorized/best-seo-firms-dont-offer-guarantees/
http://freshtraffic.ca/uncategorized/best-seo-firms-dont-offer-guarantees/#commentsThu, 18 Dec 2014 13:26:09 +0000http://freshtraffic.ca/?p=2436Hiring an SEO firm can be stressful. With prices ranging anywhere from several hundred to tens of thousands of dollars per month, depending on your specific needs, it is difficult to hear an SEO firm tell you it will take...

Hiring an SEO firm can be stressful. With prices ranging anywhere from several hundred to tens of thousands of dollars per month, depending on your specific needs, it is difficult to hear an SEO firm tell you it will take a few months before you can expect to see results. How do you know if they’re doing real work, or ripping you off? If you’ve hired an SEO firm before and had a bad experience, you have anxiety added upon anxiety as you go through the hiring process again. In these circumstances, it is perfectly understandable that you would be attracted to the idea of a guarantee. Other service businesses, from auto mechanics to shipping companies, offer guarantees, so why wouldn’t SEO firms?

As the owner of an SEO firm, I’ve been tempted to offer guarantees myself. Don’t my clients deserve a guarantee? And wouldn’t it be great for marketing? It would help those clients who are hesitant about the risk involved with SEO to decide to use us rather than a competitor who didn’t offer a guarantee, right? But several years ago when I started researching SEO guarantees, I found reasons to be hesitant about offering one myself. The first reason can be found in my spam filter, and probably in yours, too. Here’s a view of what I see in mine:

]]>http://freshtraffic.ca/uncategorized/best-seo-firms-dont-offer-guarantees/feed/0Convincing Others that SEO Mattershttp://freshtraffic.ca/internet-marketing/convincing-others-seo-matters/
http://freshtraffic.ca/internet-marketing/convincing-others-seo-matters/#commentsThu, 11 Dec 2014 00:43:30 +0000http://freshtraffic.ca/?p=2432SEO Matters because 91.5% of search clicks come from Page 1 For those who weren’t born during the digital boom, convincing them that their business would highly benefit from SEO – a concept they can hardly comprehend, let alone get...

For those who weren’t born during the digital boom, convincing them that their business would highly benefit from SEO – a concept they can hardly comprehend, let alone get fully behind – can be very challenging. Even more technologically savvy business owners and marketers may be convinced that their marketing strategy is working sans SEO. When speaking to potential clients about SEO, try to break it down into as simple as terms as possible (KISS), and always bring understandable data to back up controversial claims.

Then you now have to get used to facing people who are skeptics or simply think that you are wrong about what you are telling them, especially conversations with IT departments (these guys know it all, right?) about the difference between an 302 redirect and how it’s treated differently by search engines than a 301 redirect, it matters.

In each case, you need to learn where the person is stuck, then figure out how to get them past it using their own language and frame of reference.

There is a lot of disinformation in the world of SEO. Scammers are very common. People who just don’t know any better – that’s common, too. Stop looking for the tricks and magic wands and trust in the people who will tell you how it is.

Search Engine Optimization must be included in any marketing mix for businesses across all industries. It’s a blend of technical savvy, marketing know-how, brand management which, unlike so many other forms of media – provides a measurable return on the investment.

]]>http://freshtraffic.ca/internet-marketing/convincing-others-seo-matters/feed/0Update SEO Content, Titles and Pictureshttp://freshtraffic.ca/uncategorized/update-seo-content-titles-and-pictures/
http://freshtraffic.ca/uncategorized/update-seo-content-titles-and-pictures/#commentsWed, 03 Dec 2014 22:16:13 +0000http://freshtraffic.ca/blog/?p=2430In the past, the actual content included on a website was often given a low priority over the inclusion of keywords at a specific density. Improvements made to algorithms included by major search engines now make it more important than...

In the past, the actual content included on a website was often given a low priority over the inclusion of keywords at a specific density. Improvements made to algorithms included by major search engines now make it more important than ever that each piece of SEO content is well written and presented correctly when using a template. Updating content on a regular basis is a good way of making sure potential clients return on a regular basis to a particular Site is always a good idea, with well-presented and accurate titles and pictures also an important part of web design.

]]>http://freshtraffic.ca/uncategorized/update-seo-content-titles-and-pictures/feed/0SEO: Look at the bigger picturehttp://freshtraffic.ca/uncategorized/seo-look-at-the-bigger-picture/
http://freshtraffic.ca/uncategorized/seo-look-at-the-bigger-picture/#commentsWed, 03 Dec 2014 22:01:24 +0000http://freshtraffic.ca/blog/?p=2425Focusing on the detail instead of the bigger picture is usually the first mistake a new client makes when starting a seo campaign. SEO is a combination of several factors and no single factor can guarantee an increase or decrease in...

Focusing on the detail instead of the bigger picture is usually the first mistake a new client makes when starting a seo campaign. SEO is a combination of several factors and no single factor can guarantee an increase or decrease in search ranking. Therefore, it is always best to implement the basics of SEO first and try to get your site optimized as a whole, rather than focusing on ultra specific details such as trying to assess how much more weight an H1 header tag has versus an H2 tag.

Always try to implement best practice SEO when possible and don’t lose the bigger picture when getting into the detail. (Hint again)

By correcting these avoidable mistakes, you can better optimize your brand’s SEO strategy to ensure you are seen and heard.

]]>http://freshtraffic.ca/uncategorized/seo-look-at-the-bigger-picture/feed/0Organic Search Has Transformed The Rules Of Businesshttp://freshtraffic.ca/uncategorized/organic-search-has-transformed-the-rules-of-business/
http://freshtraffic.ca/uncategorized/organic-search-has-transformed-the-rules-of-business/#commentsThu, 20 Nov 2014 19:25:01 +0000http://freshtraffic.ca/blog/?p=2422Just think about how buyer behavior has changed in recent times. When you decide to buy a car, do you rush straight to the car dealer? Of course not! You’ll spend hours online, researching various car makes and models. For...

Just think about how buyer behavior has changed in recent times. When you decide to buy a car, do you rush straight to the car dealer? Of course not! You’ll spend hours online, researching various car makes and models.

For decades, the music industry thrived on a successful model — selling physical copies of song collections (CDs, tapes, records, etc.). Then, the internet changed everything.

The ability to download digital mp3 files transformed the music industry and paved the way for the iTunes revolution. That was a consumer-driven shift that forever altered the way music was packaged and sold.

In a similar manner, online search is transforming conventional selling models. While Google is innovating at warp speed, the sales process of many businesses remains stuck in the 1990s, relying on outdated and ineffective strategies.

Just think about how buyer behavior has changed in recent times. When you decide to buy a car, do you rush straight to the car dealer? Of course not! You’ll spend hours online, researching various car makes and models.